Ode to Mothers

I just woke up from a wonderful two hour nap. Now, for those who know me that is not really a shocking discovery, but my usual naps are not due to being a caretaker for a two and a half year old girl for roughly 18 hours. Over the course of those 18 hours I came to several conclusions.

1. First of all, my niece is a genius. This was really not a new realization, but was just confirmed throughout our time together. She does not forget anything. She will often reference something and I will rack my brain trying to figure out what she is talking about, only to remember this memory from when she was approximately 3 hours old.

2. Have you ever heard that a child's attention span is the child's age in minutes? Since she is 2.5, that would mean she has an attention span of 2.5 minutes. This is FALSE. The equation should actually be half the child's age, which in her case would be about 1 minute and 25 seconds. This morning I was trying to get myself ready, while keeping her entertained in my bedroom where I could easily keep my eye on her. HAHAHA... way easier said than done. I would get the TV set to something she was interested in and get about 1/8 of my hair dry only to find her MIA. This tactic was repeated several times, while I considered giving up and just throwing my wet hair up in a ponytail sans makeup, but that is too scary for the public, so I battled on. How my sister makes it out the door with make-up, teeth brushed, hair fixed is a mystery to me.

3. My house is NOT kid proofed at all. I realized this about 2 minutes after we arrived at my house when I was locked out by "the genius". When she let me back in she was devouring a Hershey kiss. I'm surprised she wasn't laying on the couch reading People and watching Jersey Shore. Before she comes back for another spend the night party I will need to make sure I am in full lockdown mode, like Fort Knox. Chains will need to be used on all drawers, doors, cabinets, etc. Carson would run off for a minute and return with a treasure she had dug out of the depths of some drawer, which of course meant that whatever was covering this treasure, was now littered throughout the room she was in. Seeing as I am a "little" (read "way") anal, I basically followed her around the whole time picking up whatever she had thrown down, spit out, knocked over, etc.

4. Carson LOVES Oscar (my cat). Unfortunately, Oscar does not share her feelings. He finally reached a point where he would quietly emerge and peek around the corner only to find that she was still here. He would then turn around and slink back to his hiding spot with a scowl on his face. I typically do not chase him around the house while squealing and trying to pull his tail, so he was not used to this behavior.

5. I absolutely adore my niece and cannot wait for her to come back again! We were talking today about all of the fun things we can do together this summer since I will be out of school. I am looking forward to spending lots of time with her and helping Ashley get ready for Maggie's arrival.